Press release

The prosecutors within the National Anticorruption Directorate – the Territorial Service Piteşti sent to trial the defendants:

NICOLESCU CONSTANTIN, president of Argeş County Council, who was charged with the following offences:
- the use or presentation of false, inexact or incomplete statements or documents, which had as its result the unlawful obtaining of funds from the general budget of the European Communities, the budgets managed by or on behalf of the European Communities, with very serious consequences, through repeated acts and activities,
- intellectual forgery in direct connection with the above mentioned offence against the financial interests of the European Communities, committed in order to conceal the perpetration of the offence or to reach the goal pursued through such an offence, through repeated acts and activities,
- taking bribe, through repeated acts and activities,
- instigation to the offence of abuse of office against the public interests in order to obtain for another person a patrimonial advantage;

PENESCU GHEORGHE CORNEL, majority shareholder of S.C. PIC S.A. Piteşti, who was charged with the offence of giving bribe, through repeated acts and activities;

NICUŢ GHEORGHE, former mayor of Curtea de Argeş municipality, ANDREI CĂLIN IOAN, mayor of Câmpulung municipality, ŞTEFAN ION, mayor Budeasa village, all situated in Argeş County, who were charged with the offence of the use or presentation of false, inexact or incomplete statements or documents, which had as its result the unlawful obtaining of funds from the general budget of the European Communities, the budgets managed by or on behalf of the European Communities, with very serious consequences,

DESPAN FLORIAN, executive director of the Direction for European Integration and Rural Development within Argeş County Council, who was charged with the following offences:
- the use or presentation of false, inexact or incomplete statements or documents, which had as its result the unlawful obtaining of funds from the general budget of the European Communities, the budgets managed by or on behalf of the European Communities, with very serious consequences, through repeated acts and activities,
- intellectual forgery in direct connection with the above mentioned offence against the financial interests of the European Communities, committed in order to conceal the perpetration of the offence or in order to reach the goal pursued through such an offence, through repeated acts and activities;

POPA ION, mayor of Stâlpeni village, Argeş County, who was charged with the offence of abuse of office against the public interests in order to obtain for another person a patrimonial advantage;

GRIGORE DOBRE, associate and administrator at SC ZEUS S.A. Piteşti, who was charged with complicity to the offence of the use or presentation of false, inexact or incomplete statements or documents, which had as its result the unlawful obtaining of funds from the general budget of the European Communities, the budgets managed by or on behalf of the European Communities, with very serious consequences.

NICOLAE ION, representative of S.C. ZEUS S.A. Piteşti, DUMITRACHE GHEORGHE and MIRCEA TUDOR, construction site supervisor, who were charged with the offence of intellectual forgery in direct connection with the offence of the use or presentation of false, inexact or incomplete statements or documents, which had as its result the unlawful obtaining of funds from the general budget of the European Communities, the budgets managed by or on behalf of the European Communities, with very serious consequences and through repeated acts and activities, committed in order to conceal the perpetration of the offence or in order to reach the goal pursued through such an offence.

The indictment drawn up by the prosecutors stated the following facts:
The Argeş County Council accessed, within a PHARE project, a grant program amounting to 900,000 euro, having as objective the carrying out of rehabilitation and reconstruction works for four school units located in the administrative area of Argeş County, respectively in Câmpulung Municipality, Curtea de Argeş Municipality and Budeasa village, claiming that the respective units were affected by the floods occurred during April - August 2005.
The financing application was accompanied by a partnership statement signed on June 5th, 2006 by the defendants: Nicolescu Constantin, president of Argeş County Council, as the responsible person within the requesting institution, as well as by Călin Ioan Andrei, mayor of Câmpulung Municipality, Nicuţ Gheorghe, mayor of Curtea de Argeş Municipality and Ion Ştefan, mayor of Budeasa village, Argeş County. The financing application was drafted by the defendant Despan Florian as the executive director of the Direction for European Integration and Rural Development within Argeş County Council and as the project coordinator manager.
The funds were requested under the circumstances in which none of the school units was affected by the floods occurred during the respective period. In the application for funds a document was mentioned entitled „The report of Argeş Inspectorate for Emergency Situations”, a document which in fact doesn’t exist. This situation was known by the defendant Nicolescu Constantin in virtue of his position as the vice-president of the County Committee for Emergency Situations.
Despite the false data entered in the application for financing submitted on June 8th, 2006, the respective grant contract was concluded and the beneficiary, represented by Argeş County Council, unlawfully received the total sum of 880,249.95 euro as a PHARE non reimbursable external financing.
The contracts were implemented during 2006-2008 and all the rehabilitation works were carried out by one company, SC ZEUS S.A., which entirely received the sums related to the works executed and to the works that were not executed. This company had contractual and legal relationships with the defendant’s family.
During the implementation of the project, the defendant Nicolescu Constantin signed the request for final payment and the annex attached to the request that was drafted on the basis of some documents containing unreal data (acknowledgements of receipt, financial technical reports) and falsely ascertaining the execution of the works which in fact were not executed. The request for final payment and the annex was drafted and signed by the defendant Despan Florian. Consequently, Argeş County Council unlawfully received the sum of 260,800 euro representing the last installment of the grant contract. The acknowledgements of receipt were made available by the defendant Grigore Dobre, associate and administrator of SC ZEUS S.A. Piteşti (the company which executed the works) and were drafted by the defendants Nicolae Ion, responsible with the execution of works on behalf of the company SC ZEUS S.A. Piteşti and Dumitrache Gheorghe and Mircea Tudor, both members in the Acceptance Commission and site construction supervisors.
Moreover, for the most important objective, the works have not been completed yet, although the entire financing was received.

During 2006 – 2008, the defendant Nicolescu Constantin, as the president of Argeş County Council, requested and received from the defendant Penescu Gheorghe Cornel, associate and majority shareholder at S.C. PIC S.A., sums of money or goods totally amounting to 66,588.15 lei in order for Argeş County Council to purchase from S.C. PIC S.A. food and non-food products, in some of the cases by infringing the legal procedures on public procurement. The sum remitted as bribe represents 10% of the total value of these contracts.
Moreover, in June 2009, the defendant Nicolescu Constantin made the defendant Popa Ion, mayor of Stâlpeni village, Argeş County, not to impose a fine amounting to 10,000 lei to a person who built on the public domain a construction without having the all needed certificates.
In order to recover the prejudice, the prosecutors ordered the seizure of the properties belonging to the defendants: Nicolescu Constantin, Grigore Dobre and Popa Ion.

On January 26^th, 2011, the anticorruption prosecutors ordered the detention of the defendant Nicolescu Constantin for a period of 24 hours. On January 27^th, 2011, Argeş Tribunal admitted the proposal of the prosecutors and ruled the further detention of the same defendant for a period of 29 days. On February 2^nd, 2011, Piteşti Court of Appeal ruled the replacement of the detention measure with the interdiction to leave the country.

The case was sent to Argeş Tribunal.

It should be mentioned that this stage of the criminal proceedings represents, according to the Criminal Procedure Code, the completion of the criminal investigation and the referral of the case to the court, for trial, a situation which cannot, under any circumstances infringe the principle of presumption of innocence.

THE INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE